Question

What is the crowd’s attitude toward Caesar as Antony takes the pulpit to speak? Explain.

Answer 1

Answer: When Antony takes the pulpit to speak, the crowd turns against Brutus and calls for blood.

Explanation:

Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is a play about a group of conspirators that betray Caesar and murder him.

In Act III, Scene II, Brutus and Antony, the two main conspirators, give their speech in the marketplace after Caesar's death. Brutus is the first one to speak, and the crowd hails him as a hero. They proclaim that "Caesar was a tyrant", and believe that he deserved to die.

But as Antony takes the pulpit, he wins over the crowd with his speech. The crowd turns against Brutus. Antony manipulates the crowd by mentioning Caesar's will and the legacy he has left them with. The crowd soon seeks revenge and rebels against the conspirators. By the end of the speech, they begin destroying the city and setting fire. This demonstrates how the people in the crowd lack logical thinking and are easily persuaded.

Answer 2

Answer:

The crowd gets past the fact that they were upset with Caesar and they are now upset with Brutus, and call for blood.

Explanation:

When Antony first starts to speak he makes it a point to first say "I have come to bury Caesar not praise him" and then he goes on to use emotion to sway the audience, which in the end leads to the audience being mad at Brutus and calling for blood as they realize that Caesar was not a horrible person, he was trying to make up from his wrongs.